Galway is the city the rest of Ireland visits when it wants to remember why people choose to live here. Population around 85,000, but it feels smaller because the medieval core is compact and pedestrian. The Latin Quarter, Shop Street, Quay Street and the Spanish Arch are all within a fifteen minute walk of one another, and the buskers are good. There is usually a fiddle player outside Tigh Neachtain.

What sets Galway apart is its diet of festivals. The International Arts Festival in July, the Galway Film Fleadh in mid summer, the Galway Races at the end of July, the Oyster Festival in September. If you want a quieter weekend, come in May or October.

The N6 motorway connects Galway to Dublin in about two and a half hours. From Galway it is forty five minutes by road to the Cliffs of Moher and an hour and a half to Connemara.